"The Sun unleashes a torrent of charged particles. Some of them slam into the Earth's atmosphere, triggering breathtaking auroras in the night sky. But for equipment that's orbiting our planet in outer space, solar weather can quickly turn into a major headache. The particles have been shown to wreak havoc on the on-board electronics of satellites, endangering their mission and longevity."
"Put simply, cyclotrons use a magnetic field to bend the path of charged particles into a circular shape, allowing them to be accelerated to high energies. The idea is to blast these particles at certain materials to simulate the effects of space radiation here on Earth. Job pages posted to ZipRecruiter suggest the goal is to study how computer chips react to a bombardment of highly energetic particles."
SpaceX is developing a 230 MeV cyclotron facility in Florida to bring single-event radiation testing in-house for spacecraft electronics. The cyclotron will accelerate individual protons to high energies to simulate space radiation and study how particles affect materials and components. Job postings indicate the facility will screen and characterize electronics at chip and PCB assembly levels across SpaceX vehicles and platforms. The testing aims to improve performance characterization critical for scaling AI constellations, broadband-beaming Starlink satellites, and deep space exploration vehicles, enabling faster development and enhanced longevity of on-orbit systems.
Read at Futurism
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